Chauvin won’t tell his side of case
Defense rests as former officer charged in death of Floyd informs judge he declines to take stand
Minneapolis — Derek Chauvin spoke publicly for the first time since his arrest in May, telling a judge Thursday that he would invoke his constitutional right against self-incrimination and not testify in his own defense in his murder trial in the death of George Floyd.
The defense rested its case minutes later, after just two days of testimony, paving the way for closing arguments and jury deliberations in the landmark trial to begin Monday.
In a dramatic moment outside the view of the jury, the former police officer removed his face mask inside the downtown Minneapolis courtroom where he has sat silently and stoically day after day through jury selection and weeks of intense testimony about the night Floyd died while pinned beneath his knee.
Chauvin held a microphone, nodding and even smiling at moments as his attorney, Eric Nelson, recounted for the court how the two men had “gone back and forth” about whether he should take the stand, including one final “lengthy meeting” on the issue Wednesday night.
“I will invoke my Fifth Amendment privilege today,” Chauvin told the court, the first sentence he has spoken publicly since his arrest in Floyd’s killing nearly one year ago. His voice, deep with a clear Upper Midwestern dialect, has only been heard briefly in the litany of police body camera and bystander footage of the night Floyd died that has been repeatedly played in the courtroom.
“It is your decision to not testify?” Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill asked him.
“It is, your honor,” Chauvin replied. The moment ended weeks of intense speculation, including among prosecutors, about whether Chauvin would take the stand and attempt to explain what he was thinking when he knelt on Floyd’s neck and back for over nine minutes. Floyd was handcuffed, face down on a street, begging for breath and calling for his deceased mother until he went limp.
Several jurors indicated during jury selection that they were interested in hearing Chauvin’s side of the story. And some observers believed his testimony might have been the only way to undo some of the damage from weeks of deeply fraught testimony from prosecution witnesses, including young people at the scene who told the jury of the “cold look” on Chauvin’s face as he knelt on Floyd’s neck, and the fear and helplessness they felt as they watched the Black man die.
It might also have given Chauvin an opportunity to express remorse for Floyd’s death or show more of his humanity. In the courtroom, the former officer, much of his face concealed by a blue surgical mask, has often appeared stiff and uncomfortable as footage of him atop Floyd played for the jury. He often seemed to avoid looking toward jurors during especially emotional testimony, including from Floyd’s younger brother, Philonise, who appeared as the prosecution’s “spark of life” witness last week.
But the move also would have presented a risk for Chauvin, who would have faced intense cross-examination by prosecutors who likely would have pressed him to respond to damaging evidence in the case.